Go for Easy

You can improve the quality of your web projects by collaborating with designers. You can also improve the quality of your web projects by learning some fundamental graphic design skills. It doesn’t have to be a difficult thing to do. If you make it an integral part of your development process, you’ll easily be able to incorporate both coding and design fundamentals into your web projects. Later on, you won’t find yourself poring through analytics reports, looking for the causes of high bounce rates.

Your design should be consistent across all pages of the site. Elements should be aligned and balanced, and the pages should be visually attractive as a whole, with no particular element overpowering any other element. And the most important thing is this: know the problem you’re solving with the page, and who you’re solving it for.

Here they are, 7 Design Principles 

Alignment

If you’ve ever used a word processor like MS WORD, then you’re already familiar with Alignment.

Alignment is a basic design principle that describes the way that the text and graphics components are arranged on the page. An example of alignment is choosing “justified” rather than “centered” text. Alignment creates the boundaries between areas on the page, making it easier for the user to see and read the content.

Repetition

“Repetition” can mean several different things, but the most common meaning is the reusing of a pattern, text, or graphic element throughout the entire design. By repeating elements, you can create a sense of consistency and harmony throughout the site.

Repeating an element, such as an image, doesn’t require that it be an exact duplicate, or even that it’s aligned in a particular way. Even slightly changing the look of a reused element is a valid creative technique.

Hierarchy

The use of hierarchy creates a sense of importance between the elements, as they relate to each other.

Creating a hierarchy is often accomplished by using a larger font size or font weight for the most important elements. You could also use a different font altogether, or you could make it a contrasting color to the other elements on the page.

Calls To Action (CTA’s) should be at the top of the hierarchy because they are more important than other page elements, and visual attention should be called to them.

Balance

Balance is a design principle that uses symmetry and asymmetry, and space, to ensure that no individual element overpowers another on the same page.

Symmetry is a type of visual balance; where all elements are the same distance from the center.

Asymmetry can also be used to create balance. Using asymmetry, heavier looking elements would be on one side of the page, with lighter looking elements on the other side, further from the center, and using more of them.

Try to counter the “weight” of a large element by grouping several smaller elements together on the opposite side.  (If this arrangement consisted of real physical objects, they’d actually balance-out, in the real world.) The design feels balanced when element-distribution is consistent, and when you achieve this challenge visually, you’ve achieved balance on your page.

With practice, you’ll know if it doesn’t “feel” or look quite right, and you’ll also know when it looks and feels balanced.

Contrast

Contrast creates a type of visual interest by combining “opposites”. You can use contrast with textures (smooth and rough), and colors (light and dark), you name it. Get creative with contrast!

Using Contrast is important to make the page visually interesting for the user to look at and engage with.

Color Psychology

Color choice is an important aspect of design because when used effectively color can influence specific emotions (for example, blue has been shown to solicit calm feelings) or trigger brand recognition (for example, red and white is used for Coke products).

Keep your projects’ color palette simple; four to five colors at most.

Typography

Typography refers to the style and appearance of your written content. Like color, it can be used to influence a variety of emotions and inform users about the nature of your brand.

Use no more than two unique fonts. Using more than two has the potential to cause difficulty in reading the text, competition with the overall design or confusion about the purpose of the site itself.

Helpful Resources:

Google Fonts: HUGE cache of free web fonts.

Coolers: upload an image and automatically create a color palette based on the image colors.

Have fun designing your web pages!

Questions? 

[email protected]

My Contact Page

Other articles you might like:

-Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings

-10 Things to Do After Creating Your Website

-6 Tips to Make Your Blog Post SEO Friendly

 

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

When you contract with Image and Aspect, you always get your source files at the end of the project. You own them. Just sayin’.

Here are some pointers to help you learn the difference between renting and owning your site.

Renting

When you use a “hosted platform” package-solution, (Do-It-Yourself) it’s considered to be “Software as a Service” (SaaS) and you are renting your website from them. It’s usually a monthly or annual subscription and it has a lower up-front investment cost. Examples: Wix and Shopify.

Owning

Owning requires a custom solution, and there’s a higher up-front investment for this dedicated development. Owning allows for customization and integration with 3rd party services, provides greater flexibility plus there’s room for expansion. There is also less of a chance that you’ll pay for services that you’re not using. Basically you own your piece of web real estate and you can do what you want with it. Let’s think “keeping it within legal parameters .”

What Renters Can Expect

• Easy for Do-It-Yourselfers.
• Lower cost of entry.
• Various paid subscription levels (free, starter, pro, etc.)
• Add-on modules, plugins or extensions purchased from a dedicated “marketplace”.
• One combined service for hosting, payment processing, and website administration.
• Maintained infrastructure & automatic security updates.
• New features introduced on a regular basis.
• Technical support in articles, tutorials, videos.
• A wide selection of design templates (some are free).

The Downside of Renting

• No equity! When your subscription ends, the time, money and effort you put into building the website are lost.
• Incremental costs add up. With every add-on, a new cost emerges that is often higher than the original subscription fee. There will be a monthly fee for that one item for the rest of the duration of the website.
• Possibly little flexibility on the required services for payment processing, hosting, data warehousing.
• Limited customization for design.
• If you leave the platform, all the investment in design and development is lost. You can’t take it with you when you move to another hosting provider/webserver. You have to start over.

What Owners Can Expect

• Customization tailored to specific business requirements.
• Scalable for future growth.
• Integration with external services.
• Open architecture allows for development, the code is portable and not tied to an organization.
• Freedom of choice for your web hosting, payment processing, and website administration.
• Important as sales volume increases and competitive processing and transaction fees become critical.
• Accommodates creative innovations as opposed to waiting for the hosted platform to release updates or fixes.

The Downside of Owning

• A higher cost of entry.
• Must be actively maintained – if the site is not maintained through a web developer, (or someone who knows how to code or how to develop with WordPress) there will be no innovation, no new features, no security patching. Eventually, a website will become obsolete as code and formats change over time.
• Time constraints – building a custom site requires a collaborative effort and considerable thought and engagement from the site owner.

As with everything, there are costs either way. Financial costs, opportunity costs, perceived value costs. The best way to decide on whether to rent or own your website is to look at your long term business goals.

When you’re business takes off and you’re renting your site, will you want or be able to take the time to stay current on how to use the platform? Will you be able to set aside time to update the content, or be on the phone with technical support or Billing? Do you feel comfortable making scheduled full-backups and storing them off-site where they’ll be secure but still easy to find when you need them? Will you feel comfortable restoring your site from a backup if you make a mistake on the site and don’t know how to fix it? Will you have the time and the inclination to research the latest Google SEO changes or the newest security threats? Will you feel comfortable making these changes? Will you be able to quickly and easily find your log-in information, your API keys, and/or your font or photo licenses if a component of your site stops working? Will you keep up with all expiration dates for your domain name, SSL certificates, sub-domains, etc, so nothing accidentally expires? If something expires would you know what to do or who to contact? Do you feel comfortable troubleshooting and fixing text formatting, images, or email issues? If you can do these things, and more importantly you’d ENJOY doing them, well that’s just swell! 🙂

But do yourself a favor and hire a professional. You’re not a web developer already! (unless you are) LOL!

If you choose the DIY route and you get in over your head, you can always call me. I promise not to say I told you so. 🙂

Other articles you might like:

–Things to consider before building your website

–6 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Blog Posts

–Balancing Consumer Personalization with GDPR Regulation

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

A very common approach for our clients is to request multiple concepts (mock-ups) at the beginning of their web development project. They believe that this will give them a sense of control over the site’s look and feel. Inevitably though, there will be elements from each design that they like, leading to the “picking and choosing” of various elements from each mock-up. Here’s the problem: elements from different designs are not necessarily compatible or even easily combined, and they don’t always present a cohesive or attractive design. This can lead to an inconsistent and possibly amateurish-look. This is jokingly called a “Frankenstein” approach.

So we use a collaborative approach with our clients instead, to shape the design as it’s created.

It’s very important that all parties have a clear understanding of the project goals and the expectations of the website, and it’s target audience. Knowing these will guide the decisions that will be made during the development of the site.

In the same manner, if you’re creating the website yourself, you need to be clear on why you need a website, what its goals are, how you will measure its productivity, who your target audience is, and why.

Producing a quality product takes time. Take that time to explore these questions and answer them honestly.

There are a few other topics to think about before developing your site. Here are a few of them:

Your Domain Name

When thinking about your domain name choice, remember that a good domain name is memorable, reflects your brand, and is nearly impossible to misspell. These qualities are important. Combining Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with brand-identity in your domain name can increase the likelihood of your site appearing higher in a list of search engine results.

Your Site’s Design

Design is subjective. “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”, am I right? So…. having said that, we all need to remember that there is no such thing as the “perfect” design. The desire to achieve perfection leads to “tweak” after “tweak” in order to get it “right”. This isn’t a wise use of your budget or time. You may personally like it, but the site may not achieve your goals or be as user-friendly or effective as it could be. It’s important that the site looks great, yes, but it’s equally as important for it to function properly, be user-friendly, be mobile-responsive and achieve its’ goals.

Your Site’s Security

Websites that conduct online monetary transactions, such as e-commerce sites, need certain security measures to protect customer information. To reduce browser-based threats, SSL certificates should be used on the site. All businesses should conduct on-going security checks on their site, or have them performed by a security service.

Your Content

It’s necessary to have high quality, original content on your site, not only for user engagement but for SEO. Content affects your site’s ranking in search engine results. Each web page should have at least 150 words and should include links to credible online resources and other pages within your website. Your content should be written to echo your brand. Use a free plagiarism detection tool to ensure that there isn’t accidental plagiarism in your content. (Google penalizes plagiarism, and they may remove your site from search engine results.)

Your Images

Everything on a website is considered to be intellectual property and is protected under copyright law. If you plan to use stock photos, they may still be copyright-protected. Using copyrighted images can result in stiff penalties. When using stock images, make sure you have written permission to use them and that you pay any relevant fees.

You can also use copyright-free images, but be sure you’ve read their terms of use beforehand.

Your Site’s Style

Think about whether you prefer an uncluttered, muted, minimalistic look with lots of white space, or whether you’d rather have a bright and bold design. Look at several sites within your niche to get ideas.

Your Site’s Goals

Determine what you want your website to do. Once you know exactly what you want to achieve with your site, it will be much easier to design a site that delivers those results.

A goal of “Being #1 on Google” or “getting more traffic” should not be the main goal. That kind of SEO takes time, effort and dedication. SEO is an ongoing process, best done by professionals who do it for a living.

Knowing your site’s goals will help provide value for your business.

Your Timeline

Do you need this project done in a rush? Is there a specific date you have in mind for its’ launch? Make sure your timeline is realistic considering your skill level, knowledge, and experience in creating websites and promoting them.

Maintenance: who will maintain your site?

A website is kind of like a car; it requires ongoing care and support. Your site may function beautifully today and not so well next year. There are ongoing costs for keeping your site fresh and functional, and there are also costs to you for NOT doing it: like diminished readership, fewer sales, low search-engine rankings, lost clients and customers, high bounce rates, malware, legal issues, broken links, 404 errors, and website repairs that will cost you time and/or money.

If you plan to update the site yourself and do not want to get into the code to do it, then you need a CMS (Content Management System). A CMS handles lots of the technical aspects of a website, like allowing non-developers to easily upload and manage their content.

A CMS can also be used for creating an online community, allowing visitors to create accounts and have their own pages.

Do you need a CMS? Ask yourself these questions:

• What kind of website will it be?  Will it be a personal blog? Or a portfolio site with contact information? A store?
• What’s your budget? WordPress is free, though you’ll still need to purchase your own domain name, hosting, and any commercial “plugins” or templates that you need.
• How many users, contributors, or admins are you going to have? How many people are going to contribute to your site? Do they need individualized permissions?  WordPress allows you to define different kinds of contributors.  
• What are your site-updating needs? Will your site be mostly text and images, or will you need to support multimedia or interactive components like a shopping cart? How much control do you need over the look of your site?

The more complex your needs, the more you might benefit from a maintenance plan with us, or if you prefer the doing the maintenance and updating yourself, using the WordPress CMS would be a good solution.

Your Hosting Provider

A Hosting Provider is a company that provides storage space for your site on their server, for a fee. It’s basically where your websites “lives”.

The kind of hosting you’ll need is determined by these factors: will the site be static (unchanging) or dynamic (interacting with users or changing frequently)? Does the site require room to grow? (By the way, using a personal computer for hosting is very risky, not recommended, and it requires a costly static IP address.)

1. Traditional Hosting: With this kind of hosting, the server is housed in a data center, managed by the hosting company, and requires a subscription to different standardized packages that suit current or future site needs. There’s a risk of paying for more resources than are actually needed, or paying for fewer resources than what will be needed in the future.

• Shared Hosting: Still traditional, but your website shares server resources with other websites, depending on the servers’ capacity. How much your site gets depends on the hosting package you purchase. Because resources are shared, bandwidth can vary, causing slower page loading, or 404 “page not found” errors. You might be charged “over-usage” fees when the site uses more resources than the package provides, and you’ll be required to upgrade your hosting package, moving the site to a different server and setting it up from scratch; re-uploading all files, photos etc., and the site being down 24-48 hours during transition.

• Dedicated Hosting: Still traditional, but all server resources are used for only your website. Much more power, but much more expensive. There’s still the risk of paying for more resources than your site requires, or of not buying enough resources for what site will require later. Administration costs can go up too, and “over-usage” fees still apply.

• Virtual Private/Dedicated Hosting: Still traditional, but resources are shared among sites, but significantly fewer sites. “Over-usage” fees still apply when the site uses more resources than the package provides, and you’ll be required to upgrade the hosting package. Again, this means moving the site to a different (dedicated) server, and setting it up from scratch; re-uploading all files, photos, etc., and the site being down 24-48 hours during the transition.

• Cloud Hosting: Very flexible and highly scalable. Cloud hosting uses multiple servers that are housed in data-centers around the world. The servers combine as a total “pool” of resources which scale up and down according to website needs, creating a virtual server. Resource allocation is not fixed: you only pay for what is used.

Choosing the best hosting solution comes down to what’s “right” for the business right now while projecting into the next three years of growth.

Your Color Scheme

Color schemes are important because color has the ability to evoke various emotional responses. It’s vital to consider your company’s niche, target audience, brand, and to incorporate some very basic color theory. Which colors will your target audience respond to? What colors will best convey your brand?

The Website’s Integration with Your Social Media

Social media provides a way for customers to promote your brand, provide reviews, and stay current about you or your company. Written and visual content, including product images and video, can easily be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. by simply including the relevant buttons on your site.

Do You Want to Rent or Own Your Website?

By contracting with us to design and code your site, you will OWN your site. Many people don’t even realize that there is an issue of “ownership” to be considered.

When you own your site, you possess the “source code” that was used to develop the site. Without these documents, it would not be possible for you or another developer to edit the pages, or troubleshoot issues in the future. To maintain control over your site, you need to have these source files.

When you contract with Image and Aspect, you always get your source files at the end of the project.

Renting 

You’re renting your site when you use a “hosted platform” package-solution, (D-I-Y) which is considered to be “Software as a Service” (SaaS), and it has lower up-front investment cost. Examples: Wix and Shopify.

Owning

Owning requires a custom solution, and there’s a higher up-front investment for this dedicated development. Owning allows for customization and integration with 3rd party services, provides greater flexibility and room for expansion.

Summary

Before diving in and creating your website, take the time to explore the answers to some basic questions. Figure out what you want your website to do and how you want it to look and function.

Take the time to read, research, and learn. Draw or sketch your ideas for the site, or create mockups. Take my advice: doing these things will save you a lot of frustration, stress and lost time.

Or you could just call me. 🙂

Other articles you might like:

–Things to consider before building your website

–6 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Blog Posts

–Balancing Consumer Personalization with GDPR Regulation

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

1. Outdated Formatting

Today’s resume’s require style, design, color, and are visually & esthetically pleasing. They provide an attention grabbing stage with which to market your work experience as well as your professional accomplishments and values.

One resume’ tip is to add a pop of color to your resume’s headings, or use a colorful personal logo or graphic. Use a contemporary font like Calibri, Cambria, Palatino, or Verdana, which are still standard typefaces but translate well between operating systems.

Design tip: Use two fonts at most, or use just one font but bold it (or italicize it) in the headings. Leave plenty of white space on the page so reading doesn’t cause eye-strain.

Including graphs and charts is a good idea to add visual interest and to demonstrate how you’ve positively impacted previous employers.

Here’s an example from my own resume’:

2. Listing every job 

“Recounting unrelated experience from the distant past is a surefire way to make your resume’ seem dated,” says Fortune 100 recruiter and author of Signs of a Great Resume’, Scott Vedder.

“There’s no law of resume’s that says you must include every job you’ve ever had”, says Vedder.

Highlight your jobs from the last 10 to 15 years, and include a “quick nod to a job from long ago when it relates to the opportunity you’re pursuing,” says Vedder.

This helps keep your resume’ to two pages or less, with one page being best. 

3. Outdated skill-sets

Employers prefer professionals who have current and relevant skills. Stating a proficiency in old software or in an irrelevant program will draw unwelcome attention. If you need to brush-up on some skills, or learn completely new ones, it’s OK to mention what you’re doing to bring yourself up-to-date.

The same idea pertains to soft skills such as “good listening” or being a “problem solver.” Employers should be able to ascertain that you have these skills based on your work experience.

It’s not a good idea to list obvious skills such as those required for Microsoft Word. Everyone is pretty much expected to have those skills already.

Another resume’ tip is to use the “skills section” of your resume’ to highlight proficiencies that show you’re current with industry trends for the job you’re seeking. If you’re in sales, you’d mention  software like Salesforce. If  you’re not sure what skills are in demand in your field right now, look through job postings to see which skills are being sought by potential employers.

4. Your email address 

A professional resume’ writer,  Dawn Bugni in Atkinson, N.C.  says “It’s ridiculous to think something as innocuous as aol.com at the top of the resume’ will knock you out of the running, without further consideration, but there is a chance that it might.”

Instead of outdated hotmail or AOL addresses from the 90s, get with it and create yourself a free Gmail account. You’ll thank yourself later.

5. It’s hard to reach you 

To save a prospective employer the hassle  of searching for you online, make it easy for her by including a link to your LinkedIn profile and your professional social media accounts. I put them right in my header. 

Create a hyperlink on your email address too, so it’s easy to contact you.

Design tip: Create a custom LinkedIn URL to your profile page by going to“Edit public profile & URL”.

If you’re in a creative field, it’s a great idea to link directly to your online portfolio or work samples.

See ImageandAspect.com for ideas on how to get an affordable online portfolio, resume’ or CV.  Online, you can express yourself uniquely and in ways that aren’t always conducive to paper.

6. You have a “career objective”

Get rid of the career objective already. It’s ridiculously outdated, irrelevant and takes up valuable space.

Instead, use this resume’ tip: write a headline describing your profession and level of experience. Lead with your focus on the prospective employer’s needs and compose a career summary to show how you’re able to meet those needs. Explain your skills, experience and what you’ll bring to the company, in about 50 words, specifically how you’ll add value.

7. Inadvertently revealing your age

Although the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits employment discrimination against persons 40 years or older, lots of over-50 workers see how discrimination can still be a problem.

In a recent AARP survey, 44% of respondents who’d applied for a new job in the past two years reported that they were asked their age or graduation year.

Dont include your high school or college graduation dates on your resume’. I’ve done this as a 50-ish job seeker and I began to wonder if it could be the reason I wasn’t getting any calls, even though I was fully qualified for each job.

I decided to “experiment”, by leaving off my oldest degree and graduation date (1982) and including only the 2 most recent from 2003 and 2013.

If you had to guess my age using my resume’, it would appear likely that I’m in my 30’s (having graduated from college in 2003.) And guess what? I started getting called for interviews.  

Interesting.

The best approach is to simply leave those dates off if possible. When applying online, the application won’t move forward to the next screen until you fill in those dates. And of course lying is out of the question. So, there’s still THAT particular obstacle to deal with.

If you have experience with that, or have ideas about how to deal with that scenario, I’d love to hear from you.

Fair? No. Legal? No. But it happens. 

For tips on answering age-related interview questions, check this out.

8. Wasting resume’ real-estate

The phrase “references available upon request” is no longer commonplace. You’re always expected to provide references. Don’t waste valuable space on your resume’ with this one.

Questions? 

[email protected]

My Contact Page

Other articles you might like:

-How Your Personal Brand Makes the Difference–

-Use a Thank You Page to Grow your Subscriber List or Customer Base

-Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.